Strafford County employees not permitted ‘comp’ time

DOVER — “Comp” time for county employees will not be permitted in the future regardless of whether it’s allowed by a county department or not.

Following payment made to former Strafford County Sheriff Office Capt. Joseph DiGregorio in the amount of $3,157 for 110 hours of compensatory time, Strafford County Administrator Ray Bower said it will not happen again.

The county itself does not have a policy on “comp” time and Bower submitted an objection to the amount requested from DiGregorio; however, with Sheriff Wayne Estes’ override on the matter, the county had no choice but to pay the amount lest they be in violation of labor laws.

He said the reason the county does not maintain a policy on “comp” times is that it is “too difficult and almost impossible to track on an individual basis.”

“It’s hard to verify that the extra time worked is needed, which would be a requirement for comp time,” he said.

But, once a department allows it, even though the county has no policy, the county must honor it.

“If these hours accumulate under the sheriff’s allowance, we have no choice but to pay it,” Bower said.

DiGregorio explained his hours accumulated from a lot of the work he did when he wasn’t necessarily on duty such as being called out as part of the Strafford County Regional Tactical Operations Unit or called away from holiday dinners as was the case last Thanksgiving.

Some of the scenes he responded to, he said, were lengthy and required a lot of work and it was those times, while he wasn’t on the clock, that he accumulated hours.

“It was situations like that, that I put in for comp time for,” he said.

He said none of the 110 hours were related to any phone calls he might have taken from dispatchers or media while not working, but a situation such as an inmate needing to get to the hospital at 2 a.m., requiring a couple hours time, would be something he would put in for.

The bottom line, both DiGregorio and Bower said, was Estes had the final word on approving that time as an elected official.